Editor's note: This is the second part and conclusion of our history columnist's examination of Sheboygan County's reputation for houses of ill repute spanning the 1920's through the 1950's. The first part is printed in the Feb. 5 edition of the Press and can also be found online.

For years, Sheboygan County had a reputation in the Midwest for the sheer number and quality of its brothels. Estimates had them numbering about forty.

By the late 1940s, much of the county had enough of the bold spurning of the law, the sniggering jokes and the crime that surrounded the roadhouses.

After years of dancing around the subject of illegal brothel activity, things began to change in 1948, with the arrival of a newly elected district attorney, John Buchen.

Buchen remarked in an interview with his biographer, Martha Millen, “The thing that got people mad was a Minneapolis paper that had an article or series of articles about prostitution in Sheboygan.” This unwanted publicity stirred up ire in the community.

Local prostitution also received unwanted publicity during the 1948 governor’s race. Candidate Walter J. Kohler Jr. brought up the issue of prostitution in Hurley, a town in his opponent’s home county. His rival, Carl Thompson humorously retorted, “Clean up your own backyard first.” (Hurley had gained a reputation as a center of gambling and prostitution. Miners working the Gogebic Range for iron ore frequented the small town beginning in the 1880s. Hurley’s famous Silver Street had a great concentration of saloons, bordellos and gambling establishments into the 1930s. By the 1940s, its popularity was waning. The mines were closed in the 1960s.)

Another group of citizens who thought the wheels of justice ground too slowly organized the Plymouth Community Council in June 1950 and voted to go directly to Madison to seek action. The council was referred to a local attorney, and that led them to John Buchen and Nathan Heffernan. The committee complained the houses of ill repute presented moral problems and health hazards to their community. One particular problem was the busloads of University of Wisconsin students that frequented Plymouth looking for a good time.

Sheboygan County officials were taken to task for not doing their jobs, for ignoring the problem. Judge Buchen pledged his support and began a campaign to close the brothels. First, he requested help from Madison, as he didn’t trust the local police force or sheriff’s office. A tail was put on some of the local officers so they couldn’t call the madams and warn them about the proposed raid.

Justice Nathan Heffernan, friend and colleague, administered the oath of office at the beginning of Judge John Buchen’s first full term as county judge on Jan. 11, 1965, years after the men conquered Sheboygan County’s prostitution problem.(Photo: Submitted)

On the night of Jan. 26, 1951, 24 agents of the state beverage tax division raided six brothels; the Casino, the Greenhouse, the Farm, the Club Royal, the Tin Roof and the Green Bungalow. The last three, located in Plymouth, were locked and dark. Agents had to make forced entry. The proprietors had obviously been tipped off. On Feb. 1, 21 of the women, the inmates or prostitutes, were fined $25 each in Sheboygan County court. On Feb. 15, five women, the madams, were fined between $300 and $400 on charges of aiding and abetting prostitution or being keepers of disorderly houses.

After finding that the buildings were being used for purposes of lewdness, prostitution and assignation and they constituted a public nuisance, Judge Detling signed court orders directing the five premises to cease operation as houses of prostitution on May 25, 1951. D.A. Buchen requested the buildings be padlocked for one year, and asked for authorization to sell the furniture and fixtures on the premises. Judge Detling declined the sale and allowed the use of the buildings for any other purpose than prostitution.

So, why did Sheboygan County become a center for prostitution? Judge Buchen said, “It seems that because anti-prostitution laws were enforced in the rest of the state, hoodlums and persons just out to raise hell came to Sheboygan County for that purpose.”

He was adamant that the business be stopped because a great percentage of the crime in the county was caused by the men who patronized the houses. Buchen also heartily objected to the exploitation of the women involved.

Sheboygan Press article dated Feb. 15, 1951, with the first set of fines and arrests for the January raids.(Photo: Submitted)

Besides the raids and court orders on the houses, Buchen and Heffernan worked with tax authorities to go after the keepers and owners for the payment of back state beverage taxes. This seems to be the issue that broke the back of the business. Hattie Cook of the Greenhouse paid $100,000 plus interest in unpaid liquor taxes and left town, bound for California. That amount of money, $100,000.00 in 1951, is nearly one million dollars today.

Hattie’s wasn’t the only establishment affected by a similar tax lien. The Casino, located south of Sheboygan on Highway 141, was assessed $20,617.00 for the period of 1937-1950. Vera Bertram, also known as Barbara Reynolds, 36, was arrested as the operator of the establishment in 1951. A third woman, Ann Joiner, was fined $5,337.50 as the alleged keeper of The Club Royale near Plymouth.

The businesses were closed, the property and furnishings were sold. The end of an era had come and gone. The days of brothels that operated openly across the county had ended.

Beth Dippel is the executive director of the Sheboygan County Historical Research Center.